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Yuval Diskin, who last year retired as head of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, on Friday used exceptionally strong language to criticize his former boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of being caught up in a messianic fervor about the Iranian nuclear program, a fervor which he implied was more befitting the Iranian leadership.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has announced that Israel had severed all working relations with the UN Human Rights Council as of Monday this week, and will block a U.N. fact finding team from entering Israel or Judea and Samaria to investigate Jewish settlements. Spokesman Yigal Palmor said this "means that we're not going to work with them. We're not going to let them carry out any kind of mission, including this probe."
Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews will participate in a huge rally to be held on Sunday evening, May 20, at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, to combat the evils of the Internet and the damages caused by advanced electronic devices. One of the event organizers said: "This will be a mass rally never before seen in the history of Orthodox Jewry in the U.S." The rabbis behind the event say the Internet creates "many serious family-related problems."
The trial of the brothers Eliyahu and Avraham Werdesheim, who are accused of beating a black 15-year-old on November 19, 2010 as they were patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Baltimore, is scheduled to start today, Tuesday. In a case disturbingly reminiscent of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, the brothers are charged with assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon, and could face 13 years in prison.
Iran has started manufacturing models of its captured US spy plane, the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps announced on Saturday, Meher reported.
Responding to criticism from two government ministers who object to the demolition of Ulpana Hill homes, Defense Minister Ehud Barak mocked his detractors, accusing them of contracting the Feiglin germ. But whether or not Prime Minister Netanyahu accepts the turning of his rival's name into an adjective, he has been looking for ways to avoid the May 1 eviction.
Aryeh Avner, Chairman of the Ometz (Citizens for Proper Administration and Social and Judicial Justice) movement has complained to Israel's Defense Minister Ehud barak that "According to information reaching the Ometz movement, there has been an increase in the phenomenon where IDF soldiers are forced to listen to talks by rabbis on religious matters."
Ranking Islamic Jihad official Khader Adnan, who went on a 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel, has been released in keeping with the deal reached with him to end his hunger strike in February. One day before his release on Tuesday, some 2,300 Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike, synchronized with Palestinian rallies marking "Prisoners' Day."
The SEC alleges that for the past two years, Shervin Neman raised more than $7.5 million from investors by claiming to be a hedge fund manager. Although Neman promised investors exorbitant returns resulting from his investing acumen and access to pre-IPO shares of well-known companies, what they actually received was simply other investors’ money in hallmark Ponzi scheme fashion.
Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, says Tehran does not intend to stop producing uranium enriched to a purity level of 20 percent, insisting that enrichment of uranium is his country's right. The UN Security Council has demanded the suspension of enrichment. Iran has enough enriched uranium for around four bombs if the material is refined further to about 90-percent purity.
The latest Israeli Police figures: 43 activists altogether have been detained at Ben Gurion airport. Out of this number, 31 were transported to the Givon detention facility for processing and 12 were put on returning flights. Nine Israeli activists waving pro-Palestinian banners were detained for questioning.
IDF Soldiers and Military Police on Wednesday arrested a Palestinian armed with seven explosives at the Beka'ot crossing in the Jordan River Valley. The terrorist appeared suspicious and while searching him the soldiers discovered three knives and bullets, as well as the explosives. The terrorist was taken for further investigation by security forces.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin says elections for Israel's next government will be held this coming September. There's one major reason why Rivlin is interested in going to the voter soon: he hopes that the in the next Knesset he'll get the votes to pass his new bill, seeking to level the playing field between the High Court and the Knesset. He also believes Peres will bring Pollard home.
Iran has announced that "key members of an Israeli terrorist network have been identified and arrested." Apparently, Iranian intelligence forces, carrying out a series of sophisticated operations in a number of central and border provinces of Iran, managed to identify "a major Zionist network of terror and sabotage" and on Monday arrested "a number of criminal terrorists and mercenaries affiliated with the network."
The White House on Monday rejected an emotional appeal by Israel's President Shimon Peres to commute convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard's life sentence. Peres based his appeal on Pollard's fast deteriorating health, after Peres' recent conversation with Pollard's wife Esther. Peres' appeal came after he had received a petition signed by 80 MKs, urging Obama to release Pollard.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a delegation of Israeli leftists on Sunday that he would ask the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestinian statehood if Israel does not respond to his demands for the resumption of negotiations. Those demands include a total freeze of Jewish settlement construction in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, and the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisoners.
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said the rocket fire that hit the city of Eilat Wednesday night was "an extremely severe act of hostility." Head of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Kochavi confirmed that "more than ten terror bases in Sinai were revealed and dismantled over the past few months." After the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s, the rule of law has collapsed in much of Sinai, leaving a vacuum where Islamist militant groups are thriving.
Günter Grass, Germany's most celebrated living author, became the center of a news hurricane on Wednesday, after he published a poem titled "What must be said," in which he blames Israel for destabilizing world peace with its plots against Iran. The Israeli Embassy in Berlin said it is a European tradition to accuse the Jews of ritual murder before the Passover festival.
Deputy Prime Minister Ya'acov Ya'alon accused Defense Minister Ehud Barak of "starting up fires," after Netanyahu and his cabinet had decided that the newly settled Machpela House, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, would be evacuated only if it is proven that it had been purchased illegally. According to Ya'alon, Barak is purposefully "sticking up the process, not only in Hebron, but all across the Jewish communities."
This Passover season, more than 100,000 Jewish families in NYC will find themselves struggling to put food on the table, according to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. Many households have lived through job loss, dwindling savings and maxed-out credit cards. Met Council and the Food Bank For New York City, two of New York […]
Out of 95 thousand registered Kadima party members, only 40% voted by 10 p.m., when the polls closed. It was rumored that left-leaning Haim Ramon was planning to resign as Chair of the Kadima Council. Along with the Mofaz win, this may suggest that the party is moving to the right. It may also mean that Kadima could not be taken for granted as partnering with the left on issues such as religious vs. secular tensions.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday on the case of Zivotofsky v. Clinton, a suit in which Naomi and Ari Zivotofsky are challenging the way the State Department may list the birthplace of their son, nine-year-old Menachem. The State Department decided that little Menachem's US passport should show Jerusalem as his birth place, without an accompanying country.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and Tajiki President Emomali Rahmon "called for more cooperation" during their summit in the Tajiki capital of Dushanbe on Sunday. The meeting happened against the background of the increasing economic sanctions against Iran.
Friday's French newspapers want an answer to one simple question: How was a known Islamic extremist allowed to murder seven people, including three children, in three separate attacks? And the founder of France's elite police unit asked "How come the police's best unit did not manage to arrest a lone gunman?"
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of the international Quartet scheduled for next month. Clinton's call to Abbas was to follow up on discussions between Abbas and Obama a day earlier.
Israel and Germany signed a contract purchasing the Israeli Navy's sixth submarine Wednesday. It is an SSK Dolphin Class submarine. Last year the newspaper The Welt am Sonntag reported that German chancellor Angela Merkel conditioned the sale of the Dolphin on Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, which Netanyahu obliged.
Speaking at last Friday's prayer at the North London Central Mosque, also known as Finsbury Park Mosque—and formerly controlled by convicted terrorist recruiter Abu Hamza al-Masri—Ken Livingstone, the Labor party's candidate for mayor of London, pledged to "educate the mass of Londoners" about Islam.
The French magazine Le Point reports that police are investigating the possibility that three soldiers, who had been forced out of the French army because of their neo-Nazi beliefs, committed the shocking murders of Arab French soldiers and Jewish French school children. Their description matches an eyewitness report of a facial tattoo.
In an interview in Ankara, Turkey, published by the Anatolia news agency on Monday, Political Bureau Chairman of Hamas Khaled Mishaal accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as a "guinea pig" for testing its military capabilities before attacking Iran.
In January The Marker reported that Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israel-based international defense electronics company had won a contract worth $50 million to supply the unmanned drone Hermes 900 to an unknown state on the American continent. Now Aviation Weekly reveals it must be the Mexican government.
A heavy firefight has broken out in a main district of the Syrian capital Damascus, between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. On Monday the sound of heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades echoed throughout the night from the most heavily guarded neighborhood of the capital, which is home to a number of security facilities.
The IDF Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz concluded his official visit to Canada on Friday. Gantz was greeted by his Canadian counterpart, General Walt Natynczyk, who emphasized the importance he sees in strengthening security cooperation between the two countries. Since 2008 there has been an accelerated rapprochement between the Canadian and Israeli security establishments.
Watch compilation of rocket attack filmed by civilians. The cease fire which was supposedly declared last Tuesday morning remains more wishful thinking than an actual cessation of violence. Or perhaps, as some experts have said, this is the Islamic Jihad's new style of hurting Israel, delivering the cuts of a thousand knives in groups of only three a day, to make any serious IDF reaction appear "disproportionate."
Following reports of a ceasefire, communities in the South were hoping that life would go back to normal, but at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday a Grad rocket exploded in a parking lot in Netivot, causing damage to vehicles. One person was lightly wounded by shrapnel; 11 suffered from shock.
Multiple rockets were shot, after a ceasefire had gone into effect Tuesday. Rockets landed at Eshkol, Ashkelon, and Sha'ar Ha'Negev. Still, the shooting has subsided significantly. Palestinians agreed to stop launching rockets at Israeli cities, Israel agreed to stop targeting terrorist leaders from the air. Israel released only a noncommittal confirmation, saying "Quiet will be met with quiet."
Two Palestinians were killed Monday evening in an IAF strike east of Gaza City, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 25 since Friday. The IDF Spokesman reported that the IAF attacked a terrorist squad Monday night in northern Gaza, shortly before it was able to shoot a high trajectory, medium-range rocket toward Israeli territory.
A survey released two weeks ago, titled “The American Mosque 2011,” revealed a tremendous growth in the number of mosques across the US since 9/11, and claims that Islamic radicalism in the US is on the wane. But Islam expert David Yerushalmi says that many of the numbers presented in the survey don't add up, and in fact contradict similar surveys conducted in recent years.
While the Air Force continues to attack Gaza and rocket attacks on communities in the south persist, following the killing of Gilad Shalit's kidnapper, both Israel's Prime Minister and Minister of Defense are threatening terrorist organizations in Gaza. In conversation with mayors in the south, Netanyahu said: "We'll arm ourselves with additional Iron Dome systems, which have tested well again." Barak: "No one in Gaza is immune." IDF Chief of Staff: "We will respond aggressively to every rocket launch against Israel."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may no longer be as popular with Iran's powers that be as he used to be. The Majlis, Iran's parliament, has approved a proposal calling for the removal of the President from the general assembly of representatives of shareholders of major companies affiliated with the Oil Ministry, including the National Iranian Oil Company. Meanwhile, the President will appear before the parliament to answer questions on March 14 about irregularities in his administration.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced in response to an AP Exposé that his department will never conduct blanket surveillance of Muslims the way the New York Police Department had done in Newark, N.J., when he was the chief of police there. Mayor Bloomberg's response to the same AP story was: "We cannot slack in our vigilance. The threat was real. The threat is real. The threat is not going away."
At a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, coinciding with the Super Tuesday primaries, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama of appeasement of Iran and urged an ultimatum demanding that it put a stop to its nuclear production immediately, or the US will "tear down" its plants. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich took a break from their race for votes in the high-stakes primaries to speak to the pro-Israel lobby.
Berlin-based researcher Benjamin Weinthal argues that Israel is militarily capable today of launching a successful attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. It would require successive strikes, using GBU-28 bunker busters to knock out Iran's entire nuclear program. Those devastating bombs were delivered to Israel by President Obama, who made good on a promise made by President Bush.
After immigrating to Israel from England in 1999 at age 50, Susan Nathan has become an outspoken pro-Palestinian advocate, appearing in the Swedish Human Rights festival and the Stockholm Olof Palme Centre, as well as forums sponsored by the Arab American Association. She came to India for medical treatment, but her visa expired and the government wants her out on suspicion of contact with extremist Muslim organizations.
"Without exception," reads the letter from LDS President Thomas S. Monson and other church leaders, "church members must not submit for proxy temple ordinances any names from unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims. If members do so, they may forfeit their new family-search privileges. Other corrective action may also be taken."
Occupy AIPAC is a weekend long series of events to coincide with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual Policy Conference, going through March 6. The Occupy AIPAC website says the group is gathering in Washington DC for a policy-style summit on the issues of Iran, the Arab Uprising and Palestine and "the affects of AIPAC in determining US foreign policy around those topics."
Although J Street describes itself as a pro-Israel organization that supports peace between Israel and its neighbors, many Israelis and US Jews, including many public figures, have said that J Street is anti-Israel, particularly in relation to the security challenges facing the Jewish state. Several US Jewish leaders have objected to J Street's position on Israel, and have publicly disassociated themselves from the organization.
Andrew Breitbart, who enraged the Left and delighted Tea Partisans both with his unabashed opinions and his video shenanigans, collapsed and died outside his Los Angeles home Thursday morning.


